As is known, headlights play, on account of their location, a major role in the passive safety of motor vehicles.
The prime concern to the progress made in the design of headlights are pedestrians for whom impacts with vehicles are extremely frequent. Although most accidents take place in town, that is to say at restricted speed (less than 40 km/h), the injuries suffered by pedestrians may have disastrous consequences.
A pedestrian impact generally comprises at least two phases. Initially, the pedestrian strikes the apron and/or the headlight. Subsequently, he strikes the hood.
In what follows, we shall be interested in the first phase, where the pedestrian strikes the headlight.
In the case of an adult pedestrian of average size, the part of the body coming directly into contact with the headlight is the hip, this possibly having serious consequences on the functioning of the lower limbs. Thus, numerous cases of hemiplegia are recorded.
In the case of a child pedestrian, it is his or her head that strikes the headlight. It is unnecessary to detail the consequences which may ensue.
Conscious of these problems, manufacturers have, already for some time now, proposed solutions aimed at reducing the injuries suffered by individuals in the event of a pedestrian impact.
Reference may in particular be made to French patent No. FR-2 501 334, or to its American equivalent No. U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,148.
Reference may also be made to the German patent application published under the number DE-100 30 373.
The solutions described by these documents propose that elastic means for absorbing part of the energy of the impact be interposed between the headlight and the structure of the vehicle.
Though these have enjoyed some commercial success, the safety that they guarantee to the pedestrian may however be improved.
Specifically, the capabilities of known headlights to absorb the energy of the impact may prove inadequate. It should be noted that this capability is generally related to the space available in the vicinity of the headlight. Now, having regard to the compactness demands of manufacturers, the space available is generally very limited.
Moreover, though the headlight itself represents a danger for the pedestrian, it should be noted that the most serious injuries frequently result from an impact with the bodywork elements which surround the headlight, these elements in fact exhibiting rigid edges.
This is why manufacturers are caught between relative flexibility of the headlight for best damping of the pedestrian impact, and relative rigidity so as to make the headlight into a rampart protecting the pedestrian from the surrounding bodywork elements.
Hitherto, no solution satisfactorily meeting these two criteria has been proposed.
Allowance should also be made for the appearance of new standards which are extremely demanding as regards passive safety and which are defined by bodies such as the EEVC (European Enhanced vehicle-Safety Committee) or the Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme).
The invention is aimed in particular at alleviating the aforesaid drawbacks of known headlights and in satisfying the new passive safety standards, by proposing a headlight which, while meeting the usual demands in terms of lighting and esthetics, improves the safety of pedestrians in the event of an impact.